Last days religion

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TODAY’S SPECIAL: 2 Timothy 1-4; Psalm 22

TO CHEW ON: “Having a form of godliness but dying its power. And from such people turn away.” 2 Timothy 3:5.


I have been following with interest the story of Gretta Vosper, the atheist pastor of a United Church in Toronto. That there should even be a debate over whether she keeps her job seems to me the big story here. Of course Ms. Vosper is free to believe what she likes. But to call herself a minister and leader of a faith in which belief in God and the Bible are the foundation while she has bluntly stated she “… does not believe in God or the Bible” shows how far down the path we as a society have wandered toward the last days scenario of “having a form of godliness, but denying its power.” (In early November 2018, her "heresy trial" was called off and she was assured a continuing position with the United Church despite her beliefs that go against the doctrinal statement of the denomination.)


Such a theological symptom is part of a quite horrendous list of self-absorbed behaviours:

“Men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self control, brutal, despairs of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” - 2 Timothy 3:2-4. 

(Had Paul been watching, in prophetic foresight, one of our newscasts?)

A little further along in the passage, Paul gives more insight into “last days” religion: “… always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” - 2 Timothy 3:7.

This reminds me of the description of a modern stream of the Protestant church called "Emergent" found in the book Why We’re Not Emergent:

“Certainty for the emergent church is the same as pinning down Jesus and summing up God, while uncertainty is a breath of fresh air.”

 The authors quote Brian McLaren (a man prominent in the Emergent church movement): 

“‘ Drop any affair you may have with certainty, proof, argument—and replace it with dialogue, conversation, intrigue and search … since reality is seldom clear but usually fuzzy and mysterious, not black-and-white but in living colour’” - Kevin DeYoung & Ted Kluck, Why We’re Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be, Kindle Location 522, Brian McLaren quote source: Adventures in Missing the Point, by McLaren & Campolo, 84.

What does Paul advise Timothy to do in the face of such beliefs and behaviours? He says simply: “And from such people turn away.”

[“Turn away” - apotrepo - means to turn oneself away from, shun, avoid.]

It might be tempting to get a little involved in the self-first behaviours that are so common today (often whipped up and spurred on by social media). Doubt is cool. It’s sophisticated to keep one’s belief options open to any and every belief system. But, Paul tells Timothy and us, that isn’t the path of the Jesus follower who lives by the certainty of God’s word - 2 Timothy 3:16,17.

PRAYER: Dear Father help me to detect any side trips I may be tempted to take into the realm of self first and denying of the truth and power of Your word. Amen. 

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 22

The Bible Project VIDEO: 2 Timothy (Read Scripture Series)



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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Will He know you?

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Jeremiah 7-9; Psalm 15

TO CHEW ON: "'And like their bow they have bent their tongue for lies.
They are not valiant for the truth on the earth.
For they proceed from evil to evil
And they do not know Me,' says the Lord." Jeremiah 9:3

These chilling words from today's focus verse snag my attention: "And they do not know Me." Why does God claim these people — citizens of Judah and members of His chosen race -- don't know Him? In this case the peoples' lies show that they don't know God in any life-changing way.

These words set me on a search to find other places God talks about our estrangement from Him and His from us.

Jesus echoes the sentiment from Jeremiah in Matthew 7 when he says that those who do the will of God are the ones God recognizes:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ (Matthew 7:21-23 - emphasis mine).

Jesus also talks plainly about not knowing those who try to come to God in any but the given way - the "narrow gate":

Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?”

And He said to them, 'Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ "(Luke 13:23-27 - emphasis mine).

There is a disturbing trend in modern Christianity to dilute Christ's claim that He is the only way to God. Perhaps it seems too narrow, exclusive, and intolerant. Or maybe it comes from a desire for novelty and finding a new and improved way to connect with God. The result is a tendency toward syncretism, a blending of our worship of God with the practices of other religions. It borrows from various faith streams to make a hybrid way to God, which includes Christ and/or a little meditation, asceticism, mysticism etc. These practices are rooted in Gnosticism and eastern religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Shintoism etc.

In this context the warning words of Moses ring across the ages. They apply to the church today:

“When the LORD your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’ You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way..." (Deuteronomy 12:29-31a - emphasis mine).

In our quest for a new and improved way to connect with God, to experience spiritual thrills and chills, let's be ever aware of Jesus' words: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6).

PRAYER: Dear God, at the end of my life I do not want to hear You say, "I do not know you." Please alert me, by Your Spirit, to disobedience and wandering in me. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 15

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Insecurity of compromise

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Jeremiah 23:1-17

TO CHEW ON: "'Therefore their ways shall be to them
Like slippery ways;
In the darkness they shall be driven on
And fall in them;
For I will bring disaster on them,
The year of their punishment' says the Lord."  Jeremiah 23:12

The prophet Jeremiah spends a fair bit of time condemning false prophets. He describes them as shepherds who "destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture." He calls them "adulterers," and "profane." He calls their lifestyle "slippery ways,"  walking in lies, and their legacy as an affirmation of evil ("They also strengthen the hands of evildoers" - Jeremiah 23:14).

They remind me of the permutations of doctrine that are widespread these days. The temptation of our leaders to reshape the teachings of the Bible to fit with society's changing standards are immense. Whereas Christians used to find themselves pretty well in sync with surrounding society (at least in Canada), that's not the case any more.

For example, within the last few years the doctrine of hell has come under attack, marriage defined as a union between a man and a woman is passé, and even within the church what is deemed acceptable sexual behaviour has, in many cases, been bent to society's patterns.

Here and in other places in the Bible, the result of such compromise is spoken of in terms of insecurity. Note some of the images Bible writers use when they speak of teaching that doesn't conform to God's standard of righteousness and what will happen to the people who follow such aberrations.

• The ungodly are as unsubstantial as wind-driven chaff - Psalm 1:4; Isaiah 40:24.

• The path they take is called "slippery" - Jeremiah 23:12; Psalm 73:18.

• Such a person "lies down" (to relax, to sleep) in odd, dangerous places: the middle of the sea or on top of a mast (Proverbs 23:34).

• Their sin is compared to a "bulge in a high wall" and their confidence is placed in a wall built with "untempered mortar" - Isaiah 30:13; Ezekiel 13:10,11.

• Their path is shrouded in darkness - Jeremiah 13:16.

• Their house is built on sand - Matthew 7:27.

• Their end is as sudden and as inevitable as labor pains to a pregnant woman - 1 Thessalonians 5:3.

Let's recall these Bible pictures when we're tempted to "go with the flow" and tinker with the Bible's unpopular teachings to make them fit in with society around us.


PRAYER: Dear God, please help me to line up my life with Your word. May I resist compromise and uphold Bible standards even in the face of my society's pressures to change and compromise in how I live and what I say. Amen.

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The Holy Bible, New King James Version Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. - Used with permission.

Spirit of antichrist

TODAY'S SPECIAL: 1 John 4:1-12

TO CHEW ON: "By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is from God is not from God. This is the spirit of antichrist, which you heard was coming, and now is in the world already." 1 John 4:2-3

Professor Albert Mohler writes of a Rev. Klaas Hendrikse and new developments in the PKN, a mainstream Protestant denomination in the Netherlands:

"Pastor Hendrikse doesn’t believe in life after death, nor even in God as a supernatural being. He told the BBC that he has 'no talent' for believing historic and orthodox doctrines. 'God is not a being at all,' he says, 'but just an experience.'

Furthermore, as Pigott (the BBC reporter who broke this story) reports, 'Mr. Hendrikse describes the Bible’s account of Jesus’s life as a mythological story about a man who may never have existed, even if it is a valuable source of wisdom about how to lead a good life.'”

According to 1 John 4:2-3, such views are not new. They were present in the early church, persist to this day, and shouldn't confuse us. John labels the spirit from which they come the "spirit of antichrist."

And how can we inoculate ourselves from becoming infected with this spirit? By becoming familiar with God's word and what it says about Jesus. Because beliefs not founded on God's word become something other than Christianity entirely.

Professor Hijme Stoffels of the Free University of Amsterdam called the new approach to Christianity in the Netherlands “somethingism.” The majority of Dutch citizens, he explains, desire some form of spirituality, but not the God of the Bible: “There must be something between heaven and earth, but to call it ‘God’ and even ‘a personal God,’ for the majority of Dutch is a bridge too far” - Hijme Stoffels,  quoted in "Dutch rethink Christianity for a doubtful world."

Let's get to know what the Bible says and cling to it. Or we are apt to find ourselves taken in by this antichrist spirit, which is alive and well all around us.

PRAYER: Dear God, please help me to learn Your Word so I can detect this antichrist spirit. Help me not to become infected by it. Amen.

MORE: Today is the Feast of St. Simon and Saint Jude

The liturgy for this day begins with the following collect:

"O God, we thank you for the glorious company of the apostles, and especially on this day for Simon and Jude; and we pray that, as they were faithful and zealous in their mission, so we may with ardent devotion make known the love and mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen."

Read Dr. Albert Mohler's article "A Laboratory for Christianity's Destruction."
Read Robert Pigott's "Dutch rethink Christianity for a doubtful world."

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.